School information
Danes Hill and Charity
Fundraising, and helping others through charitable giving, have long been seen as very important parts of life at Danes Hill. One of the most important functions of the school is to channel and develop each pupil’s civic, social sense, so that they grow up into properly responsible, community-minded adults, for whom helping others is the natural and right thing to do.
Each year we stage a number of major fund-raising events, but our pupils’ generosity is equally evident in the cake stalls, sponsored silences and any number of other often inspired ideas for fundraising which are entirely organised by the children themselves. Children are encouraged to understand that the effort they make is as important as the money they raise, and time is often the most important gift they can make to others.
These efforts soon mount up: in the past 12 months, the Danes Hill community has have raised and donated over £22,500 and the total raised since 2000 is £122,000.
Our most recent ISI school inspection picked out the school’s charitable work for special mention, and each year a Year 8 pupil is appointed as Charities Coordinator to encourage fellow pupils to support charitable events and initiatives. The Charities Coordinator is a member of the recently established Charities Committee, and works with a group of parents and staff to oversee the school's charitable activities. The Charities Committee is now the first port of call for anyone wishing to stage an event.
When it comes to choosing which charities to support the guiding principle is ‘local first’, and we have developed very strong long term relationships with a number of hospices and specialist charities in our own area. But we also look further afield, both nationally – each year we send a van full of provisions at Harvest Festival time to a London mission, for example – and internationally. What is important is that the children themselves are able to understand fully the needs of the charities they support.
Recent initiatives have included sending a library of 2000 books to a South African primary school and providing sponsorship for a year’s worth of milk and fruit for a school in Malawi. We also collected over 2000 pairs of shoes for the Blue Peter Shoe Appeal.